My parents are big fans of the ballet and the opera and ever since I can remember every year they’d drag my siblings and I along with them several times a season. We’d dress in our best clothes and our favorite shoes. Lincoln Center embodied the spirit of the city for me, glamorous and fancy. Growing up in Queens, going to Manhattan has always been exciting for me. When I started to gain the freedom to explore the city on my own I started with the wealthy neighborhoods in midtown and uptown. I soon learned that while these areas had the best postcards for tourists to send back home there was so much more the city than this. To everyone who lives outside of New York, even to those who live in boroughs other than Manhattan, New York is represented by the images of the wealthier neighborhoods with the old style architecture and fancy big buildings.
Lula Mae, who moved to New York as a young woman running away from her life in Texas, doesn’t know much about being an adult in a big city. She goes to Tiffany’s because it makes her feel a sense of security. She ran away from a husband whom she married at the age of thirteen and is on the constant search for a wealthy man she can fool into marrying her. In her town, New York was presented to her in a certain manner and perhaps when she arrived it was different from what she imagined. She was probably told about the wealthy bachelors on every corner and the beautiful jewelry stores and other wonderful luxuries. Holly does not have the money to pay for the large apartment she lives it yet she has a closet full of fancy outfits she could wear around her apartment. Holly can’t afford the life she is pretending to live which is why she is on a constant search for this wonderfully rich man who will give her the life she imagine she would have.
When Holly goes to Tiffany’s she can browse the glass cases as if she has the money to buy any of the beautiful jewelry. In that period of time she is like any other rich person in the store. She can pretend to have the potential to make a purchase. She blends in with her own idea of the city. To match her idea of the city Lula Mae had created her idea of the person she needed to be to fit it. For the time it takes her to drink her coffee she is allowed to be the person she wants to be in the city she wants New York to be. To Holly, Tiffany’s represents the person she hoped she would be, the life she hoped she would live in the city she hoped it would be.
Blake Edwards’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s perfectly depicts the vision of New York others are made to believe. I can connect with Edwards’ portrayal of Holly as a girl who is trying to fit in to the glamorous city of New York, as I was once and to some extent still am the girl who is attempting to build my own city within the city I live in.
